One of a Kind
by pinktonks
Summary: Now that i think about it, I was always meant to be an archer. My father had trained me- but I had choosen it. However, I wasn't sure if I was trained to handle never ending weather beasts, early mornings- oh, and of course, Wally West. Please R&R!
1. Intro

Now that I think about it, I was always meant to be an archer.

As a child, I'd always like to climb upwards. I loved to sit at the vantage point closest to the skies as I could reach and observe the world around me. Up high, I could find solace from my father and his harsh, rigorous training, as well as the mountains of abuse that never failed to accompany it. Jade's shadow, which I constantly found myself encompassed by, never managed to reach me up so high. She thought scrambling up anything I could was childish. She thought I was running away. She thought I was cowardly.

Here, I was able to escape all of the daily plagues my life was filled with.

Dad, however, soon discovered my penchant for ascent, for quiet observation. He put as many kinds of weapons and stealth gear on me as he could find, and sent me scrambling up trees, poles, electric fences, nets, anything anyone could humanly climb. The day he pressed a bow into my small hand, a forty-five pound (much too heavy for a seven year old girl to handle, under normal circumstances- but I guess I was never normal.) and a weight filled quiver to my back, we both discovered my true talent.

While I was easily an adequate climber, the feel of a bow in my hand far surpassed any feeling I'd ever had in my life. When I was allowed to shoot, I felt almost euphoric. Those first shots, while wildly off target, were filled with an emotion I had never felt while surrounded by my sister, by my father. By the cold steel walls of his so called "training facilities;"which more resembled an abandoned warehouse on the outskirt of the shadiest neighborhood in all of Gotham. Shooting that massive bow, forcing my thin smiled to myself when I loosed an arrow that found home within the bale of hay. When one made a satisfying thud and landed within the target, I smiled up at my father.

His focus, his stoicism, however, pulled me back to the ache in my shoulders and abs, the soreness of my fingers, and the spot where my arm guard had not proved to be adequate coverage, resulting in a bruise from where the string had thwacked against my then tender skin.

As the weeks passed, my father taught me silence. He timed how fast I could nock and shoot an arrow without making a sound. He had me complete obstacle courses while blindfolded lackeys listened for the slightest sound. If they caught me, they were ordered to attack me with knives- many of the scars on my body are results of this kind of training. He made me learn and perform with the accuracy of an Olympian how to shoot both recurve and compound bows in a variety of shapes, draw weights, and even what hand held the bow and what hand pulled the string.

He had me lift weights until I could shoot the heaviest bow he could find- a 150 lb. draw. Being only about 110 lbs at this point in my life, this task was remarkable. It should have been impossible, really. I think that shooting that bow was one of the only times in my life where I was aware that my own father was proud of me.

Soon, he introduced explosives. Arrows with tips that would act almost like fish hooks when shot into flesh- a thought I never was comfortable with. Screw on tips with blunt arrows, all encapsulating different things- high strength wire, to create zip lines or act as rope in case of emergency, as well as nets, and smoke bombs. I carried an arsenal in my specialized quiver that could rival the supplies of the Boy Wonder himself.

I had just turned fifteen when my mother was released from prison. Jade had left when she had gone to Belle Reve, two years after I had learned that a bow and arrow were my greatest assets in this world. I had endured something akin to torture during the six horrible years that i had , been left with my father- but the one thing that he had given me in those years was bravery. I was brave, and I was strong. In my entire life, I have not met someone who could have undergone the same things I did as the Sportsmaster's daughter. Not a soul.

When my mother arrived, she spoke to my father. In six years, my mother had finally chosen to be good. She wanted to start over, to live a new life. She wanted the same for me- I shudder to imagine what my father wanted me for, exactly, but I knew that it was nothing at all similar to the suggestion my mother made to him.

I had heard her words, spoken quietly, her accent making the words more tempting- more dream like. I was enchanted with the idea of being a hero. When I heard the sound of my mother's wheelchair being flipped on it's side, of her screams, of metal skittering left and right, I knew that this would not bode well.

And so, I packed up the few items I owned- a backpack full of civilian clothes, a jacket, a pair of boots, a toothbrush, and both my recurve and compound bows, as well as all the arrows I could carry. The one positive of living in our decrepit fourth floor walkup was the fire escape. I flew down the slick stairs wearing only socks, using all the training I had to not make a sound. My strength was an asset- I never felt the fatigue that a normal person would feel hauling the weight of all that equipment for the miles I sprinted out of North Gotham.

Since that night, I have found a new family, as well as my old one. I live in the same walk up with my mother, but I also live in a room with simple grey walls and a brown, hardwood floor, deep inside of the revered mount justice.

My name is Artemis Crock. I am the apprentice to the Green Arrow.

I am one of a kind.


	2. Encounter and attack

I secretly hated sleeping in mount justice.

My room was barren, cold, and uninviting. I knew that I could change all this simply by adding pictures, or bringing my own blankets- making it more pleasant and homely, but that seemed like a traitorous move towards my mother. She didn't want to admit it, but she depended on me for more than she would like. My once strong and proud mother was now trapped in a wheel chair, and her past made her feel ashamed of how far down the food chain she had come. Daily chores had fallen to me, as she was unable to do them. Sweeping, cleaning the shower, making beds- they had become too much for her. Too tiresome. When I was gone, I knew that my mother came home from her desk job and ordered in pho from the Vietnamese restaurant down the street, ate while watching the news, and then went to bed to read until she was able to sleep. Never did she alter her routine. She was too afraid of having some sort of accident and not having me there to help and care for her.

Tonight, I was trapped in the fortress. A hurricane had begun to threaten the harbor, and even we heroes found ourselves on lock down. Red Tornado would not allow any of us to leave, and had reconfigured the zeta tubes in a code that even Robin was unable to hack. My nerves were on end because I had no way to contact my mom- all communication had gone offline two hours ago. She would be worried- but she knew these things happened. She knew the life of both criminal and hero- a good huntress must always learn the pattern of her prey.

This fact, which I played over inside of my head over and over in an attempt to calm myself, did nothing to help except make me worry more about my secret. About my heritage. If the team knew, they would almost definitely get rid of me- Especially Wally. Ever since I had first arrived with Ollie at my side and busted his awkward façade of suaveness, he'd hated me. He called me "The Replacement" as often as he could. I could not remember a day when I had been in his presence and not received glares by the dozen, or found myself in a one on one screaming match from hell. The rest of the team had actually gotten used to hearing his voice rising, cracking at times, and mine becoming embarrassingly shrill over the silliest disagreements.

I was almost certain I would never get along with the stubborn, pain in my ass speedster.

Even though my room was among the ones buried deepest in the Mount, I was able to hear the winds of the storm raging outside. This, culminating with my worry and my utter discomfort in the seemingly ownerless room, left me wide awake, though my body was begging for sleep due to both this morning's tracking mission and the extra training session I had decided to take part in against Conner, Kal'dur, and Robin. I was able to keep up with them, but my body felt the toll in a big way.

I rolled over and flicked on the lights. A standard clock that sat haphazardly on my desk told me it was around three in the morning- I groaned inwardly, and swung myself out of bed. Every muscle in my back ached as I leaned back and popped my lumbar, the pops easily audible. I stood and walked out of the room, the bruise on my calf from receiving a swat from one of Robin's new toys- thick, black, and heavy batons- aching with every other step. Damn that boy and his stupid toys. Damn me for failing to block the hit.

I stood in the kitchen for a moment, then grabbed a pear out of one of the baskets. I longed so to have a window, to be able to view the storm that kept me trapped in this mountain first hand.

However, I did not have this luxury, so I settled on turning on the television and watching the local island news. I pressed the mute button down and settled onto the green sofa in front of the TV. After a few minutes, my eyes got tired of reading the black and white scroll, a blonde woman talking about raging seventy mile winds blowing in onto the coast, ravaging the shore lines and the first line of coastal properties. I closed my eyes, and thought of how Kal and Aquaman and the other Atlanteans were just beneath the water's waves, using sorcery to prevent the storm, and before I was even able to stop myself, I fell asleep.

It wasn't too long before I woke up to the sound of a pot crashing to the ground. My eyes flew open, my body moved itself until my feet found solid ground and my arms flew up into a fighting stance. My vision was still blurry, for god's sake.

Before me, a blurry red headed figure stood, unmoving. I blinked a few times, and the confusion on the speedster's face came into view. Lowering my arms, I walked out from behind the sofa, rubbing my eyes. In his hands were a silver pot and a blue box of macaroni and cheese.

"sorry…" I muttered, my voice betraying my sleepiness. He smiled at me, and I was amazed to see an absence of hatred or malice. He turned on the tap to fill the pot with water without a word, and set it on the burner. He clicked the dial up until a blue flame rose, licking the pot's base gently, the low hiss of the flame filling the silence between us.

"What are you doing sleeping out here?" He asked, his voice kind. The only time I'd heard that kindness in his voice before was when we'd been in the desert and amnesia had besieged us. I made sure to omit no sign of this thought.

"I don't like sleeping here too much… makes me miss home." I said, less sleepy. I sat on a bar stool across from him, crossing my arms. I felt exposed in my cotton shorts and shirt. I felt naked because none of my bows were near. Mentally, I cursed myself because never, no matter how safe I was, or how harmless someone was, I could never let my guard down. I could never show any truth about myself. I was constantly forced to hide who I was.

"What do you miss? Personally, I always miss my bed. And my mom's cooking." He poured a bit of salt into the pot, his impatience for the water to boil becoming obvious. It was almost funny how his stomach was a constant factor in his every moment. For a moment, I wondered how that sort of living would be…. Dad would have tried to breed it out of me, I bet.

"just my mom. She's all I got at home, and I guess it just worries me to be away longer than I need to be." What the fuck was I doing? I wished I could swallow the words back up- I'd let go of too much.

"I see. Well, I'll bet you she's doing fine. It's only one night." He smiled at me, then at the pot- the water had finally begun boiling, and he wasted no time in ripping open the box and pouring its contents into the pot. He was so hasty about it that he even let the packet of fake cheese drop into the water. Suave Wally wasn't really very suave at all.

Only when I let out a little giggle did he look at me, then look down, in the direction my eyes pointed, and then I watched him rip the packet out of the boiling water, burning his fingers on the water. Caught between intense embarrassment and pain, Wally looked up at me, his face red, holding the wrist of his injured fingers.

"Run your fingers under cold water before the burn gets bad, Kid Idiot," I told him, a sleepy smirk on my lips. He complied, throwing me a look of annoyance.

"Shut up," he muttered, not much feeling in his words. I stood and stretched, catching his eye. He stared for a moment, then looked away.

"I will. I think I'm going to try and force myself to catch a few more hours of sleep. Try not to hurt yourself, Wallman." I walked off to my lonely room and collapsed, pulling the sheets up around me. It took all my power to force myself to sleep.

Morning came, and I was awoken by the sound of loud voices outside my door. My annoyance rose rapidly- until I heard the mount's alarm system go off, accompanied by the voice of Batman himself.

"We are under attack. All league members and sidekicks, report."

Batman, normally placid and even in tone, had allowed an ounce of concern to creep into his voice. This was enough to send a shock of terror through my system.

_We are under attack. _

**A/N: So I've been struggling with the essential plot of this story, but I finally figured it out! Plus I tossed in the first of our Spitfire encounters. Also, for future note- this story will take place at different times in the YJ timeline. Be prepared, kids.**

**Thanks to those of you who reviewed, story/ author alerted, etc. You don't understand how much joy that brings me. READ AND REVIEW! 3**


	3. Weather Beasts

It took me only a moment to jump out of my bed, my compound bow in hand. I slipped on some purple tennis shoes, my arm guard, and my quiver, then threw my door open. Zatanna was jumping out of her room, trying to yank on one of her boots. She too wore her pajamas, as well as a look of surprise, determination, and a little fear.

"Do you have any idea what the hell is going on?" she asked me as we ran towards the cave's computer room. Farther off, we could hear muted explosions, accompanied by Robin's familiar cackle. Zee and I looked at each other, allowing a smile.

"I think that answers your question." I looked forward, pulling an arrow out of my quiver and knocking it. "We're attacking whoever has the balls to attack us at home. And this early too… How rude." We arrived at our destination, a familiar scene of catastrophe greeting us good morning.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Robin flipping off of one of the cave walls, aiming several explosive batarangs at what appeared to be… A monster made up of whirling particles of debris?

"Artemis, watch out!" Super boy shouted, and I instinctively threw myself away from the spot, rolling out of the dodge, my arrow pointed towards whatever had attacked me. A wailing whirlwind of snow and ice had thrown icicles at me, and was now moving closer to my current position. I shot at it, my arrow sticking into one of its quasi arms, not seeming to bother it one bit.

So that's how it was, huh?

I ran around behind it and launched an explosive arrow into where I estimated it's shoulder socket would be. A satisfying thunk and an explosion, and my bare legs were covered in snow. I allowed myself a small smile before moving on to helping Kal'dur, who was sending fierce whips of electrified water at a cloud of lightning that seemed to had taken on a human form. The cloud was feeling none of the effect, and so Kal switched tactics, creating a giant spatula shape and sending it slamming down on top of the creature. As a last ditch effort, the creature sent the remaining lightning it possessed into the water, attempting to short circuit Kal. He saw it coming, however, and directed the lightning through his aqua pack and in the direction of one of the seemingly endless hordes of weather beasts.

I looked around at the destruction- every type of weather I had ever seen or heard of was attacking, each element taking on a humanistic form. There were so many- they were simple to defeat, but their sheer quantity would exhaust every one of us, and we would lose.

Kal seemed to have noticed what I had, and he yelled out for me to gather the others and meet at the bioship.

I found M'gann and relayed the message, and a moment later, I heard her frantic voice ringing out in my mind.

"Abandon the fight and head to the hangar! There are too many of them!" She took off, and I followed her. Wally zoomed past, a giant mudslide following him, roaring. I sped up as much as I could. That mudslide looked like a serious problem, and getting out of this hell hole sounded better and better every moment.

As soon as the bioship came into view, I flew up the already open hatch, closely followed by Zatanna and the Boy Wonder. I ran to my seat, allowing myself to take in a breath of relief to satiate the insane amount of adrenaline that was coursing through my body. Wally sat behind me, Robin and Zatanna across the ship. Kal was at the head, M'gann at her usual seat, her hands on the glowing green orbs that controlled the ship. She wore her uniform, and I almost cursed her for her biological ability to morph her clothing. I was freezing and drenched from the explosion of the ice and snow monster.

"Where's Conner?"M'gann shouted, the ship just taking off. His voice came on over the mental link;_ I'm already in front of you on pod. I had to get wolf out of there. _

The Martian nodded to herself and we took off, flying into the craziest hurricane conditions I had ever heard of, let alone seen or flown through. The sun was shining as if it were a pretty day that we should have been spending on the beach, but around us, a enormous twister of sand and island debris and water ravaged the sky and the outside of the bioship. On another side of the ship, snow flew down in tiny, violent torrents- I had not seen such snow since the failsafe simulation.

My hands tightened their grip on the edge of my seat. The failsafe simulation. As I gazed out the windows, flashes of my last moments popped up before my eyes at rapid fire speed. Now, even though I had not experienced the horrible possibility of watching friends die a death that was completely inevitable, I had experienced dying. Dying was not a fun thing. I still found myself plagued with awful nightmares of firing my last arrow into the beam of that awful machine, of feeling my entire body disintegrate, layer by painstaking layer… Goose flesh appeared on my already cold legs.

It had taken me all this time to figure out that I was absolutely freezing- the explosion of that awful snow and ice beast had gotten all over me. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling just how cold my numb skin was.

"shit!" I exclaimed. I stood up and walked into the back of the ship, opening drawers.

"What are you looking for?"Wally said, standing behind me in an instant. I stood up and turned to face him. "oh.. I didn't even notice. You're soaked."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious. I hadn't noticed." _Until just a moment ago…_ I thought. " Do you know if there are any towels, or extra clothes? I'm freezing… A snow monster exploded on me." Wally smirked at me.

" I think I noticed that. Here," He took off his hoodie and handed it to me. He only wore a pair of wrinkled sleep shorts and a thin white shirt, but he at least wasn't wet.

"T- Thanks Wally," I said, holding the jacket. I wanted to take off my soaking shirt, so I just stood there awkwardly. He looked at me, a distracted smile lazing about on his lips. I was suddenly uncomfortable. Wally's piercing green eyes roved over me, and I knew that a pinkish hue was painting itself over my cheeks. I looked up at him, and I realized how green his eyes really were… It was sort of arresting, and it took effort to turn my attention back to the rapidly declining temperature of my skin. I cleared my throat, drawing Wally out of whatever trance he was in.

"Baywatch, I was kinda hoping I could change real quick, if that's okay with you." I said, my voice quiet. He looked me in the eyes, smiled, then walked away. For some reason, I found myself expelling a breath I didn't know I had been holding.

'Get it together, Artemis." I quickly pulled off the shirt that had been clinging to my skin and yanked the hoodie over my head. It was maybe five sizes too big, but it was warm. I searched in the drawers a little more and found a blanket, which I used the wipe any excess water off of my skin. I patted it over my shorts, but I knew it wasn't going to help. I would have to wait for those to dry out, which was fine. At least I was mostly dry and much warmer than a moment ago… Maybe not all from the hoodie. I still felt an internal unbalance from Wally's gaze, and took a deep breath to try and correct it.

I walked out and sat down, pulling my knees to my chest in my seat. The rest of the ride was quiet, as most of the team was still fairly tired. Getting woken up at the crack of dawn sucked majorly. I rested my head against the back of my seat and closed my eyes.

M'gann bringing the ship down pulled me out of my sleep. I sat up, rubbing my bleary eyes. We were at the hall of justice, where a torrential rain storm was wailing on the building. I sighed- more rain. Yippee.

"Batman gave us orders to head to the central hall to rendezvous." Robin said shortly, running a hand through his hair. He had also gotten a couple Z's, it seemed. All but M'gann and Kal'dur looked like they had just woken up, which seemed about right.

We walked towards the exit hatch in silence. When the ship bubbled over into a ramp, we were greeted by the sound of thunder and water pouring so hard, I felt something akin to dread. My shorts hadn't even finished drying, for god's sake!

As I stepped into the rain, I found myself being scooped up, and a moment later, I was inside the building. I looked up to see wally, smiling down at me. I just looked at him questioningly as he let me down.

"What? You already got soaked today. I didn't think you would want to do it again, especially since you're… Well, short on clothing." I looked at him a moment longer, then muttered my thanks. He nodded, his smile returning to his face.

The rest of the team entered the building, all of them quite wet. I smiled to myself as we walked through the halls, happy that my shoes were not a part of the chorus of squeaks that echoed around us. Wally walked beside me, and he looked at me, and I smiled.

"Batman, what in this whelmed universe is going on?" Robin asked his mentor. Batman turned to look at our group of mostly soaked rats- and one very unhappy, very drenched wolf- and gestured at his computer screen.

"The Weather Wizard is attacking us." His voice was obviously annoyed, which was surprising since Bats usually tried to remain devoid of emotion. Except anger. He always seemed angry.

"What? That hack? Uncle Barry totally beat that loser. He's pathetic!" Wally shouted.

"Correction- He was pathetic." The Flash himself walked into the room, a cup of coffee and a donut in tow. Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary entered alongside him. "I don't know what happened, but the guy's wrecking us, and the entire country." He seemed extremely annoyed, and bit into his donut vengefully.

"We're pretty sure he isn't alone. The area of attack itself points to that. We think that Dr. Fries and the ice family are also in on this, as well as Black Manta." Batman pressed a handful of buttons on the computer screen, and it zoomed in on an area that was particularly red. A video clip from the area's local news appeared on the side of the screen, showing that it was covered in at least four solid feet of thick snow. The sky looked like it was dusky, cloudy twilight. "This area is letting off an excess of magical energy, according to Dr. Fate. The League is going to head here and try to defeat whoever is causing this. Your team will be heading here."

Batman opened up a map of the mid west, where at least ten tornadoes were ravaging the land. I watched as the tornadoes ate up houses and had to keep myself from sighing. The destruction this would cause was going to be awful; it would take at least of year to return the country to a sense of normalcy. We were then adjourned to go and prepare ourselves for the mission- which happily meant a change of clothes and some breakfast.

I walked over to Ollie, who began leading me away. He told me he had a spare uniform for me, as well as some new arrows he had been working on.

"Thanks, Ollie... Have you heard anything from my mother?" I had just remembered that I hadn't had contact with her in far too long, and I was worried. He nodded.

"Yes, Artemis. She was taken to stay with Iris and Wally's family, because they're currently running a shelter. She was happy to get out of that house. You can call her before you go, if you'd like." He gave me the number, and I went off to the store room and got my uniform, a pair of boots, and a fresh quiver of arrows.

Once changed and cleaned up, I went to the Hall's library, where I knew a telephone would be. The line rang, once, twice-

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Artemis. I was wondering if I could speak with my mother, Paula?" The woman on the other line happily obliged me.

"Artemis?" My mother's worried voice filled the line, and a feeling of calm flew down my spine.

"Hi mom."

We spoke for twenty minutes, a little laughter, a few warnings from her side, and then a couple very sincere "I Love you" 's.

I hung up, then headed off to find where ever the Flash had gotten those donuts and coffee. I was starving.

**AN: Alright, so this chapter took me forever to post… but I didn't know how I wanted to story to go. Plus my computer crashed.**

**I know, excuses, excuses. But here you go- chapters will undoubtedly get quite long from here on out. Be prepared! **

**I love you guys- keep reviewing, author/ story alerting, etc. I really appreciate the love. :3**


	4. Boxed in

I stood at the back of the bioship, bow gripped in my hand, a parachute strapped to my back. Wally and Robin stood beside me, and we look at each other, exchanging nods and a light smile, on Wally's part. All three of us were pulsing with energy- heading into battle, no matter who the opponent was, always brought a sense of excitement and a rush of adrenaline into the atmosphere. It helped the team dynamic.

"Drop zone located- prepare to jump." M'gann's voice rang out, and we all faced forward. Robin would jump first, then me, then Wally.

The hatch morphed itself open, and robin dove silently, his cape wrapping around his body, making him look like a lethal human bullet. I allowed myself a smile; I felt so pumped. I took a deep breath and jumped out of the hatch. I may or may not have done a flip on my way out; No one ever said we had to remain dead serious, and I knew that Wally had followed my lead, passing me in his fall due to the lack of drag his costume had and the streamline position he assumed. He smiled hugely at me, which looked extremely comical due to the fact that his lips were pulled out a little by the air pressure. I shook my head, and pulled my parachute.

We landed in the middle of a field of some kind of crop, and Robin pulled up his wrist computer, showing us a map with red dots that denoted the activity of the living twisters. He pulled up direct coordinates, looking at Wally.

"KF, you're going to hit this guy. Try and see if you can outspeed him and over power his momentum." Wally nodded, and then sped off in an eastern direction. Robin looked at me.

"You and I are going to hit this one with all the explosives we've got. Here, I've located a central power house within the tornadoes, about fifty feet from it's base. Try and hit that, if you can. The rest of the team is landing about a mile south of here to head off three other weather beasts." I nodded, and robin took off, leading the way. We sprinted a half of a mile, then used the height of the crop to hide from the vision spectrum of the beast.

"Now!" Robin shouted, and I began shooting an arsenal of explosives, each one disappearing into the twister. Robin tossed beeping bat bombs and red disks, then ran towards the monster. I held my position, waiting for the explosions to take out the monster. Except… No explosions came. I knew that I was surrounded by whistling wind and a tortured roaring sound, but the sound of as many bombs as we tossed and shot exploding would have made an audible sound.

"Robin, what's going on? I shouted. He looked back at me, shrugged, and then paged Wally.

"KF, how's it going?" He waited, putting his ear to his comm. Robin looked at me, then started running. I followed suit, catching up.

"What did he say?" I asked. Robin looked at me, then shook his head. He pointed behind us, towards the monster we had been battling.

"All I know is, we are not prepared to take these guys down. And we need to find Wally- even when he's running, he replies. Something is not right."

%%%%%

The team was, to put it lightly, fucked. Our communication with the Justice league had failed, and none of our weapons or tactics did anything to these stupid beasts.

Worse than that, Wally still wasn't replying. I tried to shrug off the gnawing worry, chiding myself.

_Since when have you worried about Wally? He's gonna be okay. You're going to find him if it's the last thing you do. Get it together, Artemis!_

Super Boy stood in front of me, throwing giant rocks into the swirling creatures. We all were making any effort we could to hinder the twisters, because we had gotten surrounded. Zee shouted spells desperately, conjuring up cyan disks which hurled themselves at the twisters. They were meant to push the beasts back, but instead, they were sucked up into the twisters.

Suddenly Robin ordered a cease fire.

"Robin, what are you doing? We shall be destroyed if we do not fight!" Kal shouted over the howl of the wind. It only got louder, whipping my hair around and finding every single bobby pin I used to pin back the shorter pieces of my hair and ripping them loose.

"I've been scanning the tornadoes, and I just picked up zeta beam radiation. That's why Kid hasn't been able to reply to us- they're made to suck us up, and everything we throw into them, and take us away somewhere!" I looked at the kid like he was crazy. Did he really expect us to just jump willy nilly into these insane things?

Of course he did. He rocketed off of the bioship and flipped off, allowing the nearest twister to suck him up. M'gann and Supes ran inside the bioship, then flew in. I was left with Zee and Kal'dur, and we looked at each other expectantly.

"This is crazy…" I whispered, then pushed my bow down into its compact size. I took a deep breath and ran into the twister to my right, screaming as it sucked me up.

I was alone in a dark room, full of debris and exploded bat bombs. I walked around the room cautiously, hastily pulling my bow o regular size, blowing hair out of my eyes, and knocking one of the arrows that carried a net in it. I heard a rock get pushed over, and turned in that direction. I crouched down, covering my position. The room was so dark… But as I scanned the walls, I could see no walls.

_Shit, _I thought. It was a trap. We were trapped, and each of the twisters had deposited us in separate rooms. We were alone, left to fend for ourselves. I heard movement again, closer this time. I pointed my arrow in it's direction. Suddenly, whoever was in the room with me was right behind me. I shot my arrow, capturing my attacker in the net. I had another arrow knocked before I had walked half of a step towards the trapped figure.

"Artemis?" My captive asked, squirming. I recognized that voice…

"Wally?" I closed in, never letting go of my arrow. Dad used to do this- record mom's voice and use it to distract me, and then an assassin would jump out, toss away the recording, and do his damnedest to take me out.

I knelt, and to my relief, it really was Wally. He looked like shit, which, I suppose, was to be expected. We had hurled some pretty intense attacks into these twisters, and he couldn't avoid all of it. I used the tip of my arrow to cut through the fibers of the net, freeing him as quickly as I could and murmuring an apology.

"Not a problem, Beautiful." He grinned up at me, sitting. I sat beside him, my bow over my lap.

"you know, Baywatch, I never thought I'd say it, but I'm relieved to see you." I looked around, then sighed. "I'm guessing there are no exits?"

"You guess correct. First thing I looked for. I haven't heard anything except for a lot of stuff hitting the walls and your voice, either. My comm device got wrecked right when I got in here, too, so I haven't even been able to try communicating with Rob." He looked at me, smiling. "Is yours working?" I pressed my finger to the activator on my ear, then spoke:

"Artemis to team; Does anyone read me?" I listened.

Static.

I shook my head, and Wally looked down. We were as trapped as it got- no escape routes, no communication, no idea where we were, even.

"I think we should start trying to get through these walls, Baywatch." I stood, and he scooped me up, rushing me to the nearest one. I pressed my ears to the wall, and I could hear a faint, mechanical buzzing. I took a couple steps back and launched and explosive at the wall, creating a black mark. Wally ran his fingers over it, leaving streaks.

"Well, you've successfully managed a millimeter deep dent… Let the Wallman try." He grinned, and I rolled my eyes. Punny, Baywatch. Punny.

He came back, a boulder in his hands. He began spinning himself and the boulder around at top speed, and I ran away from my position right in front of the area he was aiming for. A resonating smash later, and he was sitting right beside me.

"Well, that didn't work." He said, his voice betraying his worry. "How are we gonna get out of here? Moreover, how are we going to get food?" I laughed, leaning back on to a boulder.

"What? This isn't funny! All I have is a protein bar, and then… No more speedster, once that burns off." I nodded.

"I know Wally. Remember Bialya?" I smiled to myself, "You were almost useless there at the end."

"Yeah, well you had almost no arrows!" he retorted.

"I guess we both got kinda useless there…" I said, my mind drifting back to the mission.

"Yeah, except for I became your ninja boyfriend!" He stopped laughing when I punched him in the arm. Hard. "Ow, jeeze, I'm just messing with you, Gorgous! No need for violence."

"What's up with the pet names, Wally?" I asked abruptly. "Normally you reserve those for every girl who isn't your mom or me. What happened to harpy? Replacement?" Wally looked at me, and in the darkness, I couldn't tell if a blush had come over his cheeks or if my mind was making that up.

"I… I guess you're not a harpy like I thought… you're actually pretty.. cool. Pretty cool." He sighed, then looked at my eyes. I lost myself for a moment in the green depths, struggling to remember that I was trying to call him out. "And anyways, I already told you. You're not a replacement. You're a real archer, Artemis. Just as good as Roy ever was. Maybe… Well, maybe even a little better."

It was my turn to blush. Wally looked at my eyes, smiling softly. His face looked so kind, so peaceful.

"Thanks, Wally… You're not bad either." I smiled back at him, and suddenly, his lips were on mine.

The kiss lasted for less than a second, but my entire body stiffened. I felt like a bomb had gone off inside of me. Wally looked at me, his cheeks undeniably red. He opened his lips to say something, but I cut him off.

I pulled his face back to mine, pressing my lips to his once more. I placed a few light pecks experimentally, trying to memorize the sensation. Wally pulled me into his lap, gently holding the back of my neck, deepening the kiss. For some reason, I had thought that wally wouldn't be a good kisser, but I was proven wrong. He gently nipped at my bottom lip, begging for access. I opened my mouth a fraction of an inch, and he took advantage, gently running his tongue over my lips, causing a shiver to run through my body.

I cleared my mind, doing my best to keep myself from questioning why in the hell I was kissing Wally fucking West, and also why I was enjoying it so much. I allowed him to kiss me, and I felt his passion. He was not hurried, like he was with everything else. He took his time. He savored the kiss, and allowed me to do so also.

An explosion sounded, and I ignored it. Who knew when I would get the chance to kiss this boy again- Who knew when I had began wanting to kiss him again?

"Oh my god, I knew it!" I heard Zatanna's voice exclaim. I pulled away, my face flushing. I stood as quickly as I could, my bow in hand, not a single word coming to mind. What could I say? What sort of excuse could I offer for this?

"Hey guys. What took you so long?" Wally said, cool as a cucumber. I gawked at him, not failing to notice that he was as red as I felt.

"Reinforced walls laced with pressure sensors." Robin replied, the most wicked of grins consuming his face. "I guess there's no reason to ask you what took so long… We just saw!" he cackled wildly, and I can honestly say I have never had such an urge to break the Boy Wonder's nose.

I guess I would have to catch him and Zee going at it in the med bay again as payback.

I looked at wally, who smiled and grabbed my hand.

"Well, you said pressure sensors. I'm guessing they sensed some pressure," He said, gesturing to the gaping hole in the wall. "So it would probably be best to distance ourselves."

Robin nodded, turning around and leading us and Zee out of the compartment to locate Kal, M'gann and Conner.

**A/N: Well, I finally worked that kiss into there! Sorry to keep you guys waiting. **

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter (and the speed at which it was posted!) I love all your reviews, and I would like to say thank you to Dark Goddess of Shadows, who kindly recommended me. **

**Please read and review! And let me know if there's anything you would like to see. I'm officially opening up requests for one shots. So yeah, PM me!**


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